Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other)

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Historical fiction is a contradiction in terms. History is what happened; fiction, what did not. Yet great novelists have often disregarded this logical difficulty, taking up the tools of the historian to explore the shadowy recesses of the past. Their labors have brought forth many literary treasures. But how accurately do these masterpieces of the imagination reflect the past?In "Novel History," twenty accomplished historians consider this question in relation to some of our most important historical novels. Their essays are followed in most instances by a response from the novelist. These dialogues illuminate one of the most fascinating and perplexing issues of our time -- the relation between the "real" past and our finest imaginative renderings of it. "Novel History" includes essays by distinguished historians such as John Demos, Michael Kammen, Joan D. Hedrick, John Lukacs, Eugene D. Genovese, Richard White, and Tom Wicker, and responses from notable novelists, including Gore Vidal, John Updike, Russell Banks, Don DeLillo, Larry McMurtry, Jane Smiley, Madison Smartt Bell, William Styron, T. Coraghessan Boyle, William Kennedy, Charles Frazier, Thomas Fleming, and Tim O'Brien.

"Novel History" is both a uniquely compelling perspective and superb collection of literary history.

Language: English

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release: March 09, 2001

ISBN: 0684857650

ISBN 13: 9780684857657

Novel History: Historians and Novelists Confront America's Past (and Each Other)

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Historical fiction is a contradiction in terms. History is what happened; fiction, what did not. Yet great novelists have often disregarded this logical difficulty, taking up the tools of the historian to explore the shadowy recesses of the past. Their labors have brought forth many literary treasures. But how accurately do these masterpieces of the imagination reflect the past?In "Novel History," twenty accomplished historians consider this question in relation to some of our most important historical novels. Their essays are followed in most instances by a response from the novelist. These dialogues illuminate one of the most fascinating and perplexing issues of our time -- the relation between the "real" past and our finest imaginative renderings of it. "Novel History" includes essays by distinguished historians such as John Demos, Michael Kammen, Joan D. Hedrick, John Lukacs, Eugene D. Genovese, Richard White, and Tom Wicker, and responses from notable novelists, including Gore Vidal, John Updike, Russell Banks, Don DeLillo, Larry McMurtry, Jane Smiley, Madison Smartt Bell, William Styron, T. Coraghessan Boyle, William Kennedy, Charles Frazier, Thomas Fleming, and Tim O'Brien.

"Novel History" is both a uniquely compelling perspective and superb collection of literary history.

Language: English

Pages: 352

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Release: March 09, 2001

ISBN: 0684857650

ISBN 13: 9780684857657

More books from Mark C. Carnes

Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Abigail Adams: A Revolutionary American Woman (Library of American Biography)

3.5/5 ( ratings)

The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Secret Ritual and Manhood in Victorian America

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.: Reacting to the Past

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791

A Short History of the American Nation

4.1/5 ( ratings)

The American Nation: A History of the United States, Volume 2: Since 1865

3.4/5 ( ratings)

Confucianism and the Succession Crisis of the Wanli Emperor

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The American Nation: A History of the United States, Volume 1: To 1877

3.7/5 ( ratings)

American Destiny: Narrative of a Nation, Combined Volume

3.7/5 ( ratings)

The Routledge Historical Atlas of the American Railroads (Routledge Atlases of American History) (Routledge Atlases of American History)

American Destiny: Narrative of a Nation, Volume 2

3.8/5 ( ratings)

American Destiny: Narrative of a Nation, Volume 1

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The American Nation: A History of the United States, Combined Volume

2.4/5 ( ratings)

The Trial of Galileo: Aristotelianism, the New Cosmology, and the Catholic Church, 1616-1633

2.5/5 ( ratings)

Invisible Giants: Fifty Americans Who Shaped the Nation But Missed the History Books

2.5/5 ( ratings)

Defining a Nation: India on the Eve of Independence 1945 (Reacting to the Past)

2.5/5 ( ratings)

The American Nation: A History of the United States Volume 1

2.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?